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'I'm not the same kid,' aging teen killer tells parole board 25 years after fatal stabbing

"I'm sorry," Sean Rhomberg sobbed as he wiped away tears with the neck of his long-sleeved T-shirt and tried to regain his composure.

Three Iowa Board of Parole members sat expressionless in their Des Moines board room Thursday, waiting more than 3 minutes for Rhomberg to collect himself as they watched him through a video uplink at the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City.

“I’m sorry for taking Marion Carpentier’s life,” Rhomberg said quickly, trying not break down again. “I hope you guys can see … that … that I have changed. I’m not the same kid that committed that crime.

“I can’t talk," he said again through tears. "I’m sorry.”

Rhomberg was 15 in November 1991 when he stabbed an 8-inch kitchen knife into Carpentier’s neck, killing the Dubuque woman. Rhomberg shoveled snow for Carpentier a day earlier.

When police asked him why he killed the 70-year-old woman, Rhomberg replied: “Well, she got in my way,” according to a Des Moines Register article.

A jury found the teen guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Veal, an inmate at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville, was 14 in 1993 when she stabbed to death a retired Waterloo librarian and stole her vehicle and money.

Since the high courts’ decisions, the Iowa parole board has reviewed 39 of the 47 Iowans who were younger than 18 when they committed crimes such as first-degree murder and kidnapping and received mandatory life sentences.

Eight have been released from prison, either on work release or parole.

Board members should look at how the offenders “have bettered themselves and worked toward rehabilitation,” said John Hodges, parole board chairman, before Rhomberg's interview Thursday. “We should really be moving towards an eventual parole if the individual who is serving the time has shown the ability to return to society.”

Hodges asked Rhomberg to describe his mental state at the time of the murder.

“When I was a kid I didn’t think there was ever any consequences, and I didn’t think about what I did,” said Rhomberg, whose attorneys during his 1992 trial said he had brain damage from an injury.

"I went there to get alcohol,” Rhomberg said. He told the parole board he began drinking when he was about 12 and for about three years, drank 12 to 13 beers a day.

Dubuque County public defender Mary Kelley speaks with her client, Sean Rhomberg, 16, druing the second day of his trial in October 1992 in Waterloo, Iowa. Rhomberg was eventually convicted in the murder of Marion Carpentier, 70, of Dubuque.(Photo: Patti Carr/Dubuque Telegraph Herald file photo)

He said he knew Carpentier had cash had her home because he had seen it when he was paid after shoveling snow.

Rhomberg said if he is ever paroled he’ll likely live with his mother, who is in poor health. He said he has a job lined up at an eastern Iowa business and he has been taking classes to further his education.

"When I first come to prison, when I wrote letters, I had to draw out things — draw animals, I couldn't even spell 'cat,'" he said. "Right now, my reading is at a ninth-grade level; it was three-something when I come to prison."

Hodges told Rhomberg that a prison instructor described him as a "strong, positive influence on others."

"Why do you suppose he described you that way?" Hodges asked Rhomberg.

“Prison is not fun. They can go out and do something with their life,” he said. “I had one chance. These guys have lots of chances, and they keep coming back.”

Parole board members noted that Rhomberg began changing his behavior in prison long before the 2012 court decision, something they haven’t seen in some other offenders convicted as juveniles.

They praised Rhomberg for the programs he’s been involved in and progress he’s made.